#the idea of ‘race’ is v complex and so is ethnicity but as I understand the government understands it: ethnicity is abt shared culture/

[what-even-is-sleep]

Finally filled out a form that had Jewish as an option under ethnicity!!!!!!!!

[noshitshakespeare]

I would be interested in knowing more of how to understand/approach early modern dramas, Shakespeare especially, but other writers from his time too if you know more about them, fron the angle of race/other. Do you have resources/references on how to approach early modern drama this way? I do realise this might be a broad topic, I'm looking to expand my readings and the way I approach/read Shakespeare as a non-black POC who is very fond of his works.

As you’ve said yourself, this is a really huge topic. And as you may imagine, it’s one that’s been getting more focus now than ever (though it has existed as a topic of interest since at least the 1980s). I don’t think I could do justice to the topic in just Shakespeare, let alone in all early modern drama. But let’s see if I can make a reasonable start. 

Because the term ‘race’ didn’t signify what it does now, and because Shakespeare was living in a time before England established itself as a major centre for slave trade, the first thing to be aware of is the difference of understanding. We can’t unproblematically apply modern standards and notions of race and other any more than we can talk about Shakespeare in terms of our modern understandings of sexuality and sexual identity. This isn’t to say that people didn’t notice colour, as can be seen from the terms like ‘blackamoor’ that were being used, but the question of otherness was, then as now, caught up in the more complex issue of religion, and colonisation. Because the Ottoman empire was one of the greatest powers in the world at the time, and Islam was perceived as a major threat to the European countries, difference in skin colour could also denote a difference in ideology (I talked about this a little in relation to Othello once). But sometimes an equal threat was perceived in those who didn’t look different, but who didn’t hold similar beliefs. 

Given that your question is about otherness in general, this is very relevant, and broadly speaking, we can categorise otherness in terms of 

Those who come from abroad

Those who look different (black, brown, even a slightly different shade of white)

Those who have different belief systems (Jewish people, Islamic people, Catholic people)

Those who look different and have a different belief system. 

What to make of early modern treatments of this difference is very difficult, because there isn’t a homogenous viewpoint. There’s never been a time when everybody thought the same thing, and so one can find all sorts of perspectives on race and otherness in early modern writings. Some are missionary perspectives, seeing difference as a mark of heathenism, and wishing to ‘help’ them by converting them, which went hand in hand with those who considered them subjects to be colonised and ‘civilised’ (see for instance Richard Hakluyt, Reasons for Colonisation, 1585). But there were people even at the time who saw the colonial project for what it was, and denounced the cruelty of the conquistadores (Bartolomé de las Casas’ The Spanish Colonie, translated into English in 1583 is a very interesting read), and even people like Michel de Montaigne, who admired what seemed to be a state of prelapsarian paradise in the people of the new world (see ‘Of Cannibals’). In the other direction, looking from Europe towards the East, the great and far superior power of the Ottoman empire manifests itself in a kind of awe, fear, and Islamophobia, but less in a desire to civilise or convert. Often you’ll even find in military and conduct guides a favourable description of the Ottoman nations to the detriment of European cultures. Part of this might have something to do with the fact that Elizabethan England had treaties with the Ottoman empire, but it might be a tactic to shame to west into better practices too. 

Many scholars now attribute the notion of ‘otherness’ in the early modern period as part of the creation of ideas of ‘nationhood’ in a time when nationalism was really beginning to take shape. It’s an age-old notion and one that Shakespeare points out in Henry V that patriotism and national unity is made stronger by demonisation of others. By contrasting themselves with the Catholics, the Protestants could define their own faithfulness, by contrasting themselves with Jewish and Islam religions, the Christian nations could achieve a more unified identity, and by comparing themselves to the less ‘civilised’. In that sense, sometimes more fears are expressed in relation to those one can’t differentiate easily by physical characteristics, like Jewish people, or, for that matter, Irish people.  In fact, there are some very interesting depictions, for instance in The Merchant of Venice or Marlowe’s Jew of Malta in which the so-called Christians condemn the ‘other’ (Barabas, Shylock) for things they do themselves. Barabas, while playing the stereotypical bogeyman of a Jew, will criticise the Christians for their hypocrisy in the way they quote the bible to steal his money: ‘Will you steal my goods? / Is theft the ground of your religion?’ (I.ii.95-96). Shylock is accused of cruelty for essentially buying Antonio’s flesh, even though the Christians have ‘many a purchased slave / Which, like your asses and your dogs and mules, / You use in abject and in slavish parts’ (4.1.89-91). The same applies to more physically different characters. Aaron from Titus Andronicus is a problematic character, almost a cardboard cutout of an evil villain, but though he’s undeniably cruel, so are so many other characters in Titus, and strangely, while internalising the idea that black = moral blackness, he nevertheless shows more love for his child than Titus (who kills his own son), and questions ‘is black so base a hue?’ (4.2.73)

This is all to say that there’s no single approach to studying race and otherness in Shakespeare and other early modern writers. The treatment of the other will differ depending on the writer, the play, and even between characters in the plays, because it wasn’t a straightforward topic then any more than it is now. So the best thing you could do would be to familiarise yourself with the discourse that surrounds the subject without committing yourself too much to one view as being more correct than another (it’s a good scholarly approach to avoid bias as much as possible). Unfortunately, the books on the subject tend to be quite hardcore academic. But here’s a short list if you want to get started on something. 

Miranda Kaufmann,  Black Tudors: The Untold Story 

This is great for a more general readership and helps to break preconceptions about what the early modern period in England was like, but it’s not strictly about Shakespeare or drama

Catherine Alexander and Stanley Wells, Shakespeare and Race 

An essay collection, which is academic, but gives a broader scope than a monograph

Jonathan Gill Harris, Foreign Bodies

Quite hard, but very good for a wider approach to ‘otherness’ rather than being limited to skin colour. Does focus on drama alongside history. 

Ania Loomba,  Shakespeare, Race, and Colonialism

A classic. Again quite hard, and somewhat inflected by modern notions, but very useful. 

Miranda Virginia Mason Vaughan, Performing Blackness on English Stages, 1500-1800

Good if you’re interested in performance history and the actual presentation of blackness on stage, including blacking up. 

Kim Hall, Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England

Hardcore academic stuff, and more history-based about the beginnings of the colonial project and slavery. 

Patricia Akhimie, Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Difference: Race Conduct and the Early Modern World  

Covers that question of building national identity and deliberate emphasis of race or difference.

Mary Floyd-Wilson, English Ethnicity and Race in Early Modern Drama

Like the one above, this is broadly about the way English ethnicity is created by othering. 

Sujata Iyengar, Shades of Difference: Mythologies of Skin Color in Early Modern England

Deals with the ways early modern people understood colour in comparison to our own notions. 

Nabil Matar,  Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery

Looking eastward and southward at the relationship between Europe and the Ottoman empire as well as Africa

Daniel Vitkus,  Turning Turk: English Theater and the Multicultural Mediterranean

Another work on the relation between England and Islam, and deals very well with the British sense of inadequacy in comparison to the Ottoman Empire, as well as their fears about others who don’t have distinctly racial characteristics.

Jerry Brotton,  This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World

A history book that charts the incredible trade and political relationship the court of Elizabeth had with the Ottoman Empire. 

Ayanna Thompson,  Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America

Jumping to the present, this is more about how Shakespeare is used in America now, especially focusing on pop culture and the representation of racial issues.

For a more casual approach, and one that’s about as up-to-date as can be, you could check out the #ShakesRace hashtag on Twitter. All the scholars and theatres are using it for discussion, or for advertising new books, new conferences, talks and podcasts on this subject, though the focus is, as you may imagine, more on colour than otherness more generally. 

[patriotsnet]

How Many Log Cabin Republicans Are There

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-many-log-cabin-republicans-are-there/

How Many Log Cabin Republicans Are There

Nbc Outtrump Supporters In Battleground States Largely Favor Lgbtq Rights Poll Finds

Asked about Trump’s attitude toward the LGBTQ community, Kabel offered a series of well-rehearsed talking points: Trump is “the most gay-friendly president,” same-sex marriage is settled law, Trump-nominated Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the pro-LGBTQ decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, and the administration is doing great work on HIV/AIDS.

As an example of how “the press doesn’t give him a break,” Kabel cited the administration’s partnership with Gilead Sciences Inc. and pharmacies, including CVS and Walgreens, to provide and distribute HIV-prevention medication to targeted communities.

“He never got credit for it,” Kabel said. “The LGBT organizations thank Walgreens and CVS and, of course, intentionally forgot to mention Trump actually made this happen.”

In June, Trump declared that the same scientific know-how that produced an AIDS vaccine would deliver one soon for Covid-19, even though there is no AIDS vaccine.

Kabel said he wishes the Republican National Committee would have met this year to update the party’s official platform, which still states at least five times that marriage should exclusively be a union of “one man and one woman.” But he said he’s not worried about a backslide on LGBTQ rights.

“The social conservatives understand that we’ve won on marriage,” he said. “They’ve lost, we’ve won, and I think they really play it down now.”

Back Into The Wider World

After Bakers speech, the groups first female chairman, Sarah Longwell, announced the afterparty was at Nellies, a popular gay/sports bar with a weekend drag-queen brunch. You boys enjoy yourselves, she said, Ive got kids at home. Someone appeared in a skin-tight Make America Great Again dress and posed for photos in front of the Log Cabin logo with the dress designer; they were the most exotically outfitted attendees:

Online, Democratic critics unsheathed their knives. Your org has accomplished nothing in 40 fucking years as the GOP has gone from bad to worse to Trump on your watch, the activist and advice columnist Dan Savage wrote in response to a cheery tweet from Angelo celebrating the night. Go fuck yourselves Log Cabin Republicans, Savage wrote.

At the Mayflower, after a few minutes of post-speech networking chatter, much of the room cleared out.

Outside the grand ballroom two women in pantsuits walked down the wide marble hallway from the party. They casually held hands for a moment, then unclasped as they approached the crowded lobby.

Next to the front door stood a group of men in well-cut suits in shades of charcoal. It was impossible to tell if they were they from the Log Cabin event or part of the Mayflowers regular carousel of business guests.

And that, the Log Cabin Republicans would tell you, is exactly the point.

Sarah Longwell: Donald Trump Is Not A Republican Or A Conservative

Longwell insisted that she still holds traditional Republican beliefs, including “restraint from the executive branch fiscal responsibility and American leadership in the world where we treat our allies with respect.”

The problem with Trump isn’t a gay issue, she said; rather, it’s an American issue.

I think Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy and the country, because the rules dont apply to him, said Longwell, 40. He thinks hes above the law.

She blames the president for disregarding the Constitution, cozying up to dictators and putting his own interests first, and said she is frustrated that the GOP has stood by him.

“Republicans should be a party that cares about principles and ideas, not its loyalty to one man,” she said.

She said she’ll be voting for Biden, whom she calls a centrist. “He has a message of unity, not division.”

Other LGBTQ Republicans, like Williams, straddle the line. Asked whether she’ll be voting for Trump, she tactfully replied, “The jury is still out.”

“Since New Jersey is not in play, I’ve been trying to focus on more of our down-ballot candidates who’ve sought my support and my counsel on reaching voters,” she said.

Log Cabin Republicans And Goproud Struggle For Future Of Lgbt People In The Gop Party

The night before the Republican National Convention began in Tampa last month, a group of gay Republicans sipped wine and ate crab cakes at the Rusty Pelican, a white-tablecloth establishment with massive fireplaces and sweeping bay views. Defying the widespread perception that the Republican party is more actively opposed to gay rights than ever, R. Clarke Cooper, the 41-year-old director of the Log Cabin Republicans, told the gathering that gays are not just an insular group in the party, were an integral part of the party. Like other fetes around town that week, the reception was dominated by clean-cut white men who looked like consultants with practiced golf swings. Women and minorities were as rare a sight as unpleated pants.

Log Cabin, a Republican fixture since the late 70s, defines its mission as building a stronger, more inclusive Republican Party by lobbying for same-sex marriage, anti-discrimination laws, and other gay causes. With 44 chapters and more than 45,000 members, it has become the closest thing there is in the gay Republican scene to the establishment. Its nemesis and counterpart is the three-year-old GOProud, the only other national organization for gay Republicans. While Log Cabins white-wine affair at the Rusty Pelican was designed to appeal to the old-school Republican country-club set, GOProuds event, dubbed Homocon, featured male go-go dancers in skin-tight Freedom is Fabulous belly-tees.

REPUBLICANS FROM THE GET-GO

Jonathan Hoffman: Log Cabin Republicans A Model For Politics

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The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer.

It seems as if our political contests have become more like warfare than debates these days. The increase in identity politics has lead to some political parties becoming more like tribes defined by ethnicity, race or sexual orientation, rather than parties defined by philosophy or principles. As such, there is no place for cooperation or compromise, just a question of who will prevail.

The other day I was wondering if there was some group that, by example, demonstrates that it need not be that way. I then heard someone mention the Log Cabin Republicans, and I thought, Yeah, those guys.

Who are the LCR people?

Let us begin with a little history. In the late 1970s, gay Americans were becoming more accepted in the broader culture. This prompted a backlash. States began banning gay people from teaching in public schools. The California version of this was a ballot initiative championed by a state legislator named John Briggs. The Briggs Initiative, as it was called, had overwhelming support and looked like a done deal.

I spoke with my friend Bill Beard, a gay Republican who served as chairman of the Pima County Republican Party and is active in LCR. I asked him about endorsements. He told me that the local chapter endorsed all three Republicans for Tucson City Council, and made no formal endorsement for mayor.

Thats why I thought, Yeah, those guys.

Tags

Trans Rights: A Perplexing Issue

Like many other gay conservatives, however, he seems to disconnect gay rights and transgender rights. Kabel recalled a recent article with a quotation from the conservative activist Tony Perkins that contrasted the Democratic and Republican platforms in 2016.

“The only issue Perkins raised was the transgender bathroom issue,” Kabel said. “And I thought, ‘That means we won.'”

Kabel called transgender equality “one of the most perplexing issues going.”

“Transgender people deserve support and protection just like anybody else, but it’s a very complex issue,” he said. “It’s remarkable when you hear their stories, but it’s just a very perplexing issue about how to really address it and do it so that they’re protected but other people aren’t hurt, so that people’s religious views are actually taken into consideration.”

Transgender visibility is all but absent in the Log Cabin Republicans, from their leadership to their messaging.

An OUTSpoken Instagram post compares the LGBT left to the LGBT right by putting an image of a person who appears to be transgender or gender-nonconforming next to a shirtless picture of former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, while the campaigns store sells T-shirts bearing slogans like “gay for Tucker” “gay for Melania” and “gay not stupid.

OUTspoken sent Brokeback Patriot, who has stated trans women are not women, to New Orleans Southern Decadence party to ask passersby if they think Trump is pro-gay.

Burning During The War Of 1812

On August 2425, 1814, in a raid known as the , British forces invaded the capital during the . The , , and were burned and gutted during the attack. Most government buildings were repaired quickly; however, the Capitol was largely under construction at the time and was not completed in its current form until 1868.

Citing Resources In The Web Archive

Citations should indicate: Archived in the Library of Congress Web Archives at www.loc.gov. When citing a particular website include the archived website’s Citation ID . Researchers are advised to follow standard citation guidelines for websites, pages, and articles. Researchers are reminded that many of the materials in this web archive are copyrighted and that citations must credit the authors/creators and publishers of the works. For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources.

Nbc Outcourt Orders Idaho To Provide Gender Surgery For Trans Inmate

Despite the backlash to the Trump endorsement, Charles Moran, the groups national spokesperson, told NBC News the group has no plans to rescind its support for the president as it was a universal decision determined by the board of directors and chapters.

When asked whether Henry was involved in the endorsement decision, Moran said he could not speak to that as he was not on the phone call during her resignation but that he and the board thank her for her service to the Log Cabin Republicans.

Henrys departure comes just weeks before the groups Sept. 17 Spirit of Lincoln reception in D.C. The annual event has typically included a dinner and reception featuring high-profile Republican attendees, but this year there will only be a reception.

Were seeing a lot of what I thought would happen: A lot of prominent leaders are leaving the group, Evans told NBC News. We need a Republican group that advocates for LGBTQ issues, but the Log Cabin Republicans have sent the message that this is not their priority.

Log Cabin Republicans Endorse Trump

The Log Cabin Republicans endorsed President Trump

The group said its national board of directors voted to endorse Trump after consulting with its chapters across the country. 

Log Cabin Republicans Chairman Robert Kabel and Vice Chairwoman Jill Homan argued in a Washington Post op-ed on Friday that Trump has helped remove LGBTQ rights as a wedge issue in the GOP, citing his administration’s policies on ending the spread of HIV/AIDS as well as his push to get other countries to conform to modern human rights standards.

The leaders also cited Trump’s appointment of Richard Grenell, who is openly gay, as U.S. ambassador to Germany. 

“While we do not agree with every policy or platform position presented by the White House or the Republican Party, we share a commitment to individual responsibility, personal freedom and a strong national defense,” Kabel and Homan wrote. 

The move marks a reversal after the group refused to endorse Trump in 2016, citing him surrounding himself with advisers “with a record of opposing LGBT equality,” as well as his support of the First Amendment Defense Act, which would block the federal government from taking adverse action against people based on their beliefs about marriage.

The group said in 2016 that they would welcome the opportunity to work with him on LGBTQ issues. 

The president has also come under fire for the views of Vice President Pence, who has opposed legalizing same-sex marriage, citing his Christian faith.

Log Cabin Republican Quits After The Group Endorses Trump’s Re

Prior to Henry’s resignation, Casey Pick, who served as the programs director for the Log Cabin Republicans from 2010 to 2013, wrote in a Facebook post that even though she began distancing herself from the group after the 2012 election, she decided to give it another chance after Henry was brought on board as executive director.

I was hopeful that despite watching the organizations slide toward Trump apologism under Gregory T. Angelo , their hiring a skilled and principled operative like Henry meant the organization would finally be able to again be a conscience this party needs, Pick wrote on Aug. 15, the same day the group endorsed Trump. I publicly celebrated her hiring, and encouraged my peers in the LGBT advocacy community to give LCR another shot, knowing that a vibrant and effective Log Cabin could be a godsend during a Trump/Pence administration.

Yet, Pick said, Henrys hands have been tied and instead of espousing a progressive mission, the group increasingly fulfills the stereotypes that used to be hurled at Log Cabin Republicans: overwhelmingly gay men who are indifferent to the experiences of women, transgender Americans or LGBT people who lack the financial or social resources to protect them from the discrimination that they so often deny even exists.

“Don’t call me a Log Cabin Republican,” she wrote at the conclusion of her post.

Civil Rights And Home Rule Era

1960s Washington DC, 4K from 35mm Kinolibrary

The was ratified in 1961, granting the district three votes in the for the election of president and vice president, but still no voting representation in Congress.

After the , on April 4, 1968, , primarily in the U Street, 14th Street, 7th Street, and H Street corridors, centers of black residential and commercial areas. The riots raged for three days until more than 13,600 federal troops and D.C. Army National Guardsmen stopped the violence. Many stores and other buildings were burned; rebuilding was not completed until the late 1990s.

In 1973, Congress enacted the , providing for an elected mayor and thirteen-member council for the district. In 1975, became the first elected and first black mayor of the district.

How Groups Get Approved By Cpac Including Massresistance

MassResistance registered for a table at CPAC on January 8, six weeks before the conference. We were told that the approval process could take 5-7 working days, but to go ahead and make airline and hotel reservations, etc. anyway.

We waited two weeks with no answer. Then on Jan. 24 a conference call was set up to discuss your organization and your plans for CPAC. It was with CPACs events coordinator and Dan Schneider, the Executive Director. He said he had never heard of MassResistance.

We described the history of MassResistance and the kind of activism we do. We were very up-front about our plans for CPAC. We were going to promote our book, The Health Hazards of Homosexuality, and similar materials. We told Schneider we believe that CPACs large constituency of younger people had not been sufficiently exposed to the pro-family message, and he agreed. He said he would like pro-family groups to come to CPAC.

Schneider said that there are four criteria for a group to be approved:

The applicant organization must stand for at least one conservative/right-of-center proposition

The applicant organization must not exist primarily for a liberal purpose

The applicant organization must be legitimate

The applicant organization cannot be disrespectful of either ACU or CPAC

We told him that it was hard to believe that the Log Cabin Republicans would pass this since they clearly exist to homosexualize the Republican Party and push the LGBT agenda in government and society.

Working For Lgbt Americans

In 2019, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced that pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences Inc., would donate pre-exposure prophylaxis medication for uninsured, high-risk HIV individuals.

As part of the president’s Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America initiative, this medication, which could run up to as much as $20,000 per patient, per year, would be distributed to up to 200,000 individuals each year through at least Dec. 31, 2025. 

The Trump plan is focused on communities most in need and has received support from those who have been involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

In similar fashion, Trump announced during Pride Month in 2019 that his administration was launching a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality. His leadership on this issue couldnt be more necessary  even in 2020, 72 countries still identify same-sexual orientation as criminal, including eight where it is punishable by death. 

This campaign was spearheaded by former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, an openly gay member of the administration who subsequently served as acting director of U.S. national intelligence, becoming the first openly gay Cabinet member in our history. In coordination with the United Nations, the European Union and other human rights organizations, the campaigns goal is to pressure nations into ending homophobic laws, securing the safety and freedom of all LGBT individuals throughout the world.

Who Are The Log Cabin Republicans

The Log Cabin Republicans are a political organization founded in the 1970s that identifies themselves as staunchly Republican, with a twist. Members of the Log Cabin Republicans are strong activists for many Republican values, the idea of free markets, limited government and lower taxation, especially of high earners and corporations. They especially support privacy, and identify most with President Lincoln, one of the most identifiable presidents, who was born in a log cabin. They identify with Lincolns Republican party at that time, which could definitely be considered the more liberal of the two parties, especially in Lincolns signing of the emancipation proclamation and his promotion of civil rights for all.

This issue is extremely important to Log Cabin Republicans because most members identify themselves as gay or lesbian, or in support of equal rights for gays or lesbians. While a number of lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender folks identify more strongly with the Democratic party, many members of the Log Cabin Republicans find themselves out of step with the Democrats on many issues. Their political ideas are more aligned with those of the Republican party, and thus since the 1970s the LCRs have become an important part of the political process in avidly supporting non-discrimination of the LGBT community, promoting greater funds for AIDs research, and supporting measures like the right for individuals to marry others of their choosing.

Nbc Outover 500 Lgbtq Candidates To Appear On November Ballots Shattering Records

Williams, chair of the Republican Committee in Trenton, New Jersey, agrees that some LGBTQ Republicans choose to look past certain statements or policies especially cisgender members.

LGBTQ “people who are voting for the president are most likely not going to be transgender, because we’ve been the target and the butt of most of the administration’s actions,” she said.

According to the GLAAD poll, however, 19 percent of trans and nonbinary registered voters were supporting Trump more than either gay men or lesbians .

This Former Log Cabin Republican Is On A Mission To Stop Trump

Sarah Longwell says Trump threatens the GOP but, more importantly, democracy itself.

Back in the day , when I worked on Capitol Hill, I met my very first boyfriend. Kurt was from Paducah, Ky., and worked for a fairly moderate Republican at the time, a senator named Mitch McConnell. 

We were both in the closet, and I would pick Kurt up in my car at discrete locations. We never really spoke about politics, because it really didnt matter. The only thing I vaguely recall him telling me about McConnell was that they put lipstick on him for TV appearances since his mouth is like a knife slash.

And, one of my best drinking buddies during that period, worked um, lets say toiled for then-Rep. Rick Santorum. I only knew that Santorum was an absolute jerk because I sat next to him at a dinner on the Hill one night and witnessed his rude and obnoxious behavior. He was childishly upset about getting the right dinner rolls. But again, with Will, there was never any talk about politics. We just had a good time over lots and lots of beers.

Thats the way it was then in Congress. You had friends across party lines, and anyone who was virulently political was usually also friendless.

Sarah Longwell also worked for Rick Santorum back in the in mid 1990s, going on a tour with Senator Santorum to help promote his book, It Takes a Family. She was coming out as a lesbian at the time and eventually quit Santorum, who she considered the most visibly antigay politician in the country. 

Nbc Outtrump Applauds Poll Showing 45 Percent Support Among Gay Men

Kazmierczak called Trump a staunch supporter of gay people and their rights, but he said he makes a distinction when it comes to religious groups.

“He doesn’t want gay rights forced on religious institutions,” Kazmierczak said. “It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t support gay people. It means that to him, religious freedom is more important than social issues.”

Trump made a halfhearted effort to court the LGBTQ community in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. He called the massacre of 49 mostly LGBTQ people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that year an “assault on the ability of free people to live their lives, love who they want and express their identity.”

At the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Trump swore “to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.”

And two days before Election Day, he grabbed an upside-down Pride flag inscribed with “LGBT for Trump” at a rally in Colorado and waved it around.

Once in office, however, Trump has consistently opposed LGBTQ rights from rolling back Obama-era nondiscrimination protections to banning openly transgender service members in the military. The national LGBTQ rights group GLAAD has accused the Trump administration of 181 separate attacks on the community since his inauguration.

For Rogers, Trumps bona fides with the community arent so important.

Many gay Trump supporters say they’re tired of being told what political views are acceptable.

While Democrats Take The Lesbian And Gay Community For Granted Donald Trump’s Republican Party Is Delivering Real Results

Democrats are using their convention this week to tout their agenda for the next four years, including their promise to stand up for the lesbian and gay community. For years, Democratic Party leaders have taken for granted the lesbian and gay community along with other minority communities thinking they had no where else to turn. Those days are over. 

I’ve fought for civil rights for gay Americans for the past four decades. Today, the Republican Party is delivering real results and leadership for our community:

It hasnt always been this way. For years, the GOP generally stood against the inclusion of gay and lesbian conservatives. As one of the Republican National Committee’s first openly gay members, and a longtime leader of Log Cabin Republicans, I’ve worked tirelessly alongside many friends and colleagues to pull the party into the future. Today, thanks in large part to the leadership of President Donald Trump, the party has delivered meaningful policy victories for gays and lesbians. 

He didnt abandon these principles when he assumed his position behind the Resolute Desk. 

Nbc Outsan Francisco Police Chief Apologizes To Lgbtq Community

Evans announced her own departure from the Log Cabin Republicans last Monday in a scathing op-ed for LGBTQ magazine The Advocate. Jennifer Horn, a former board member, and Robert Turner, the former president of the group’s Washington, D.C., chapter, also denounced the Trump endorsement and left the group last week.

Notably, Henrys name did not appear alongside those of board members Robert Kabel and Jill Homan in a Washington Post Op-Ed this month announcing the group’s endorsement of Trump. The Log Cabin Republicans declined to endorse Trump in 2016.

In the endorsement, Kabel and Homan cited Trumps commitment to end HIV/AIDS in 10 years, which was met both with cautious optimism and flat-out skepticism, and his work with Richard Grenell, the openly gay U.S. ambassador to Germany, to encourage other nations to end the criminalization of homosexuality, as examples of his dedication to the LGBTQ community.

[itsnothingbutluck]

Sam Richards is a sociologist and award-winning teacher who has been inspiring undergraduate students at Penn State since 1990. Every semester, 725 students register for his Race and Ethnic Relations course, one of the most popular classes at Penn State and the largest of its kind in the country. Through his natural ability of seeing a subject from many angles, Richards encourages students to engage more fully with the world and to think for themselves — something he did not do until his third year in college. Because of his passion for challenging students to open their minds, an interviewer recently referred to him as "an alarm clock for eighteen-year-olds." His career began at the age of 24 when he was hired to teach a cybernetics course —  just 15 minutes before the first class meeting. He remembers walking into the room without having had a moment to create a lesson plan and greeting his students, "Welcome to the course. I'm your instructor. And if you have no idea what cybernetics is, you're not alone — because I don't either." This characteristic willingness to be playfully transparent in the classroom, along with a talent for making complex ideas understandable and relevant, is the foundation of his success as a teacher. Richards is also the co-director of the World in Conversation Project at Penn State (www.worldinconversation.org), whose mission is to create a kind of dialogue about social and cultural issues that invites the unexamined, politically incorrect thoughts of participants to the surface so that those thoughts can be submitted to conscious exploration and inquiry. The conversation topics span a range of cultural issues — from U.S. race relations to gender to faith to international racism. This year, nearly 7,000 University Park students will participate in one of more than 1,300 of these unscripted conversations. Furthermore, the project also sponsors video dialogues between Penn State students and students at other universities around the world...

[trecblog]

Racing Brexit – The More Things Change the more They Stay the Same: Racism in British Society Post-Brexit Referendum

In this article, we examine the current state of racism in British society, particularly in the context of the Brexit controversy. This mandates recognizing that issues of ethnicism, age, class and gender and other social phenomena which often interact with existing forms of racism, often creating hybrid manifestations of this vexing social phenomena, often, in the main, ignored or not recognized by the official legal system and academia.[i] This is compounded by the troubling reality that race is often subsumed and obscured by a focus on class and gender in academic discourse and in the legislative response to prejudice and discrimination.

The Brexit Referendum, despite indicating that a majority of voters[ii] were in favour of leaving the European union, has proven to be quite controversial, engaging much legislative debate in a political environment where there is no common collective vision of how this major constitutional change is to be affected.[iii] Perhaps this reflects the narrow victory of those in favour of leaving[iv] and there being no collective understanding of how future relations with the Europeans should look. In this complex of political conflict and debate,[v] although the issue of race has remained as ever on the margins of official and public discourse,[vi]  it has increasingly become a matter of concern, with there being a surge in racist incidents since the Brexit referendum. There was a 50% increase in the London area and a five-fold increase in the weekly UK average according to police figures, with the “flurry” of reports to the police and in social media creating a fear of “a wave of xenophobic and racist abuse in the wake of the referendum”.[vii]

While focus has been on the British reality in the Brexit discourse, it is important to remember that racism has no borders and has been integral to European identity and the imperialistic and colonialist essence of European history and societies for centuries.[viii] Olusongo points out, that the ideas of Africans being viewed as “inferior, and backwards”, can be traced back to those justifying slavery in the 18th century and the “stereotypes still cast a shadow” over Europe.[ix] Similarly, Jon Rex asserts, racial discrimination and prejudice are phenomena of colonialism.[x] Jon Nederveen Pieterse has further pointed out that racism is the “psychology of imperialism, the spirit of Empire”, because racism supplies the element that makes for the “righteousness of empire”.[xi] Blatantly, therefore, racism is much more than a bye product of empire, it is an intrinsic part of it, part of the “intestines of empire”.[xii] In this context, it has been pointed out by the European Union’s Agency for Human Rights (FRA) that racial violence, discriminatory police profiling and discrimination in the search for jobs and housing are commonplace for many in Europe.[xiii] It has been indicated that Africans face a “dire picture of racism in Europe”, with almost a third of people of African descent having experienced racial harassment in the past five years.[xiv] The FRA Director, Michael Flaherty asserts that:

“It is a reality both shameful and infuriating: racism based on the colour of a person's skin remains a pervasive scourge throughout the European Union”.[xv]

It has been asserted that the European Union and its member states “urgently” need to tackle the structural racism that prevents the “inclusion of Black people in European Society” and that, while European political and media circles condemn “White nationalist violence” and racial police violence in America, they are much more reluctant to recognize or address similar issues closer to home, despite the fact that Black people in Europe are “particularly exposed to police violence as well as racist violence an abuse from members of the public”.[xvi]

This underscores the historical amnesia and cognitive dissonance of the White Western world about their role in the enslavement, exploitation, destabilization and underdevelopment of non-White people and sovereign nations in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. It has been pointed out that this is a psychological defensive mechanism, reaction and strategy to a memory too painful to bear.[xvii] This failure to recognize and acknowledge the essence of the phenomenon of racism is a crucial concern for antiracists, given the  conclusions of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry that if racism is to be eliminated in British society, there has to be a coordinated effort to prevent its growth and that the education system must face up to the problems, real and potential, which exist.[xviii] If a problem is neither adequately acknowledged nor recognized it is impossible to have any realistic prognosis, nor consequent remedy.

It is in this context that we examine the impact of racism in the Brexit discourse and process. It is known that, race and migration were integral to the 2016 Brexit referendum debate, with there being “fundamental intersections between geography, race and class at the heart of Brexit motivations and contexts”.[xix]

Sivanandan pointed out that, “whatever else Brexit means or doesn’t mean, it certainly means racism”.[xx] And, we are reminded by Eddo-Lodge that, dissecting “political whiteness” is paramount to understanding how race operates in Britain and often positioned as “invisible, neutral and benign” whiteness taints every interaction we’ll ever engage in.[xxi] It has been stated that British racism is exemplified in the “theory of numbers”,[xxii] indicating that this theory “marks the immigrant body” and has been a “recurring fiction” woven into national debates since its justification for the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962.[xxiii] In this respect, it has been acknowledged that, during the Brexit debate the public was served with a “daily diet” that the number one issue around the European referendum was immigration and, worse still, it was not an “objective immigration debate” but one that was filled with “toxicity and xenophobia”.[xxiv] Simon Woolley asserts that this “unprecedented deluge of racial hatred” has not been bought by everyone, but for some it is both “legitimised and normalised racial abuse and violence”.[xxv] As asserted by Bhambra:

“Racializing the working-class in the context of a populist discourse that seeks to ‘take our country back’ both plays into and reinforces problematic assumptions about who belongs, who has rights, and whose quality of life should have priority in public policy. It also works with a misguided sense of who ‘we’ are and how ‘we’ came to be. The ‘we’ that was dominant within public debate on Brexit was a ‘we’ that was believed to be historically constituted in national terms and it was this history of being located within the nation that was seen to determine who should or should not have rights.

The most visceral attacks came in relation to a sense of that national community having been betrayed by a metropolitan elite that appeared to care more for the situation of ‘non-British’ others than it did for the ‘legitimate’ citizens of Britain”.[xxvi]

Further, it is believed that the Brexit debate is the latest example of how the absence of public education about  Britain’s “colonial legacy” leaves institutionalised racism and the “whitewashing of English/ British identity” outside of an “exploratory frame”.[xxvii] Bowler contends that this absence, alongside the political choice to perpetuate the theory of numbers leaves false explanations in the public imagination which provide false explanations which retain an ongoing belief abut fictions of race and immigration.[xxviii] He points out that the stories about race and immigration, told primarily by White middle class men leading the Brexit debate, “obfuscates”  the reality about the lack of physical planning for “social and economic infrastructure” to meet demographic change.[xxix]

Emejulu contends that the “visibility of racism” following the Brexit vote “must not obscure the conditions for its possibility”. She stated, “racism has always been a fact of life in the UK”, and is now “more visible”:

“when, non-BAME citizens have been drawn into its net, because the past always reflects the present and the future, we need to be honest about race and its discomfort”.[xxx]

In this respect, it has been indicated that engaging with race as a “fact and a construct is uncomfortable, but necessary”.[xxxi] Further, Foluke Ijejola Ipinyomi points out that that ignoring the history of racial relationships amounts to “epistemic violence” which was defined by Foucault and “utilised heavily” by Spivak to explain the “muteness of the subaltern”.  Spivak notes that “epistemic violence damages a group’s ability to speak or be heard” with the subaltern being the “lowest strata of the urban proletariat” and that by not addressing the concerns of British-Africans pre-EU Referendum, “the subaltern was silenced”. This is emphasied by “not engaging with the issues of race”, and heritage and remittances, the subaltern’s voice is not heard. So that the subaltern can Speak”.[xxxii]

Foluke Ijejola Ipinyomi argues that discussions of race and heritage are put on the table and left there and that we need to talk about them, “until we can move past the discomfort and then keep talking”.[xxxiii] Ipinyomi asserts that epistemic violence has to be “de-escalated” and that the “violence of epistemology” is often not overt, but that its “constancy” ensures that “actual violence is inevitable”,[xxxiv] as we have seen

with “post-referendum racial violence”, with the “Other” becoming the “enemy”.[xxxv]

Ipinyomi contends that we need to acknowledge the fact that epistemic violence hurts “both the brutalized and the brutalizer” and it seems that in a “bid to disavow the existence or legitimacy of the Other”, a decision has been made that “hurts us all”, with silence brutalizing as effectively as actual words. In this context, because epistemic violence “speaks to power and knowledge and back to power”, its cure

lies “equally in the hands of the state and academia”, with academia needing

to take a strong lead on this, “especially due to the political fallout”.[xxxvi]

Ipinyomi further asserts that, academia needs to be actively engaging with all “classes and races of people, as much as is possible, all of the time” and that while:

“Many of the ‘answers’ to Brexit may lie within constitutional law, we cannot ignore the socio-political causes and effects of Brexit. When we give voice to the concerns of all people, then the subaltern will speak”.[xxxvii]

As pointed out by Thomas Sankara:

“You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future”.[xxxviii]

[i] Arthur Dion Hanna (2011) supra.; (2018): 'cognitive Dissonance and Historical Amnesia: Racism and Race in a Bahamian Context” In THE Journal of Revolution and Liberation, Vol. 1(3) October. Available online <https://www.jrevlib.org/vol-1-issue-3-2018

[ii] Electoral Commission (n/d): “EU Referendum Results” In The Electoral Commission Website. Available online <https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/find-information-by-subject/elections-and-referendums/past-elections-and-referendums/eu-referendum/electorate-and-count-information>; BBC (2016): “EU Referendum: Brexit Win Amid Manchester’s Strong Remain Vote” In the BBC website. Available online <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36617781>

[iii] Euro News (2019): “Brexit Deadlock: MPs Fail to Back Any of the 8 Options Aimed at Solving EU Divorce Crisis” In the EuroNews Website, 28 March. Available online <https://www.euronews.com/2019/03/27/watch-live-may-faces-mps-questions-ahead-of-brexit-votes>; Stephen Bush (2019): “Parliament is No Closer to Finding a Way Out of the Brexit Mess” In the New Statesman, 1 April. Available online <https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/elections/2019/04/parliament-no-closer-finding-way-out-brexit-mess>; Iain McLean and  Ben Ansell (2019): “Indicative votes: Is There a Majority For Anything?” In The UK in a Changing Europe, 1 April. Available online <https://ukandeu.ac.uk/indicative-votes-is-there-a-majority-for-anything/>

[iv] Stephen Bush (2016): “The Surprising thing  is That the Margin For Brexit Was so Small” In I News Website, 24 June. Available online < https://inews.co.uk/opinion/surprising-thing-margin-brexit-s/mall>; Electoral Commission (n/d) supra.; BBC (2016) supra.

[v] Carl R. Tannebaum, Ryan James Boyle and Vhaibav Tandon (2018): “Brexit Drama Reaches a Fever Pitch” In the Northern trust WebBlog, 21 November. Available online < https://www.northerntrust.com/insights-research/detail?c=6d001fe7118297604264558380e00263?;Ian Dunt (2019): “The Collective Madness Behind Britain’s Latest Brexit Plan” In the Washington Post, 1 February. Available online <https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-collective-madness-behind-britains-latest-brexit-plan/2019/01/31/48d4d67e-2578-11e9-81fd-b7b05d5bed90_story.html?utm_term=.129ae2f1c66d>; Becky Wright (2019): “Collective Voice in Post-Brexit UK?” In the Union21 WebBlog, 7 February. Available online <http://unions21.org.uk/news/collective-voice-in-a-post-brexit-uk>; Daniel Kawczynski (2019): “May: Long Brexit Delay Would be Sign of Collective Political Failure by MPs” In the ITV website, 16 March. Available online <https://www.itv.com/news/2019-03-16/signs-resistance-to-mays-brexit-plan-is-softening-as-third-vote-on-deal-looms/>

[vi] Phil Cohen (1999): New Ethnicities, Old racisms. Zed, London; Stuart Hall, Sarat Maharaj and Sarah Campbell et. al. (2001): Modernity and Difference. Institute of International Visual Arts, London; Brian Meeks and Stuart Hall (2007): Culture, Politics, The Thought of Start Hall. Jan Raddle, Kingston/Miami;  Race and Diaspora: Arthur Dion Hanna jr. (2011a): Land and Freedom – A Return to the Fishing Village: Sabbatical Essays From a Legal Aid Lawyer. Karadira Blackstar, United States; (2012): “Decoding Fault Lines and the Enigma of Being: Immigration Policies and he Formation of Identity in the Caribbean” In the Journal of he Bahamas Historical Society;  Stuart Hall (2013): Representation: Cultural. Representations and Signifying Practices. Sage, London; Stuart Hall, Kobena Mercer and Henry Louis Gates jr. (2017): The Fateful Triangle: Race Ethnicity, Nation. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass; Stuart Hall and David Morley (2019): Essential Essays. Duke University Press, Durham; Omar Khan and Faiza Shaheen )2017): Minority Report: Race and Class in Post  Brexit Britain. Runnymede Trust, London. <https://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/publications/pdfs/Race%20and%20Class%20Post-Brexit%20Perspectives%20report%20v5.pdf>

[vii] Hayden Smith and Claire Hayhurst (2016): “Three Race hate Crimes Every Hour Since EU Referendum, say Met Police” In the Independent 24 June. Available online <https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/brexit-race-hate-crime-eu-referendum-met-police-a7121401.html>; Catherine Casserley and Tony Gillie (2016): “Race Discrimination and Housing in Post-Brexit Britain” In Cloisters, August 22. Available online <https://www.cloisters.com/>

[viii] Philip D. Curtin (1974): “The Black Experience of Colonialism” In Daedalus, Volume 103 (2) Spring; Etienne Balibar (1991): “Es Gibt Keinen Staat: Racism Politics in Europe Today” In NLR Volume 1 (186) March/April; Paul B. Rich (1998): “Racial Ideas and the Impact of Imperialism in Europe” In The European Legacy, Volume 3(1); Nkiru Nzegwu (1999): “Colonial Racism: Sweeping Out Africa With Mother Europe’s Broom” In Susan E, Babbett and Sue Campbell (eds.) Racism and Philosophy.  Cornell University Press; Graham Huggan and Ian Law (2012): Racism Post-Colonialism Europe. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool; David Olusongo (2015): “The Roots of European Racism Lie in the Slave Trade, Colonialism – And Edward Long” In the Guardian, 8 September. Available online <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/08/european-racism-africa-slavery>; TRT World (2016): “UN to Belgium: Apologise for Colonialism, Accept Racism Against Africans” In the TRTWORLD WebBlog. Available online <https://www.trtworld.com/europe/un-to-belgium-apologise-for-colonialism-accept-racism-against-africans-24201>

[ix] David Olusongo (2015) supra.

[x] John Rex (1973): Racism, Colonialism and the City. Routledge and kegan Paul, London

[xi] Jan Nederveen Pieterse (1990): Empire and Emancipation: Power and Liberation on a World Scale. Pluto, London

[xii] Paul B. Rich (1998): “Racial Ideas and the Impact of Imperialism in Europe” In The European Legacy, volume 3(1)

[xiii] FRA (2018): Second European Union Minority and Discrimination Survey: Being Black in the EU. Luxemburg Publication Ofice of the EU, Luxemburg

[xiv] Jennifer Rankin (2018): “People of African Descent Face Dire Picture of Racism in EU” In the Guardian, Wednesday 28 November

[xv] Michael Flaherty (2018): “Forward” In FRA (2018) supra.

[xvi] Karen Taylor (2017): “The State of Denial About Anti Black Racism in Europe Must End” In The Parliament Magazine, 8 September. Available online <https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/blog/state-denial-about-anti-black-racism-europe-must-end>

[xvii] Stuart Hall (1980): “Encoding/Decoding” In D. Hall, A. Lowe and P. Willis, (eds.) Culture, Media, Language: Working Pars in Cultural Studies. Hutchinson, London; (1992): The Question of Cultural identity” In Stuart Hall, David Held and Anthony McGrew (eds.) Modernity and its Futures. Polity Press, Cambridge; Stuart Hall, Sarat Maharaj and Sarah Campbell et. al. (2001) supra; Arthur Dion Hanna Jr. (2011 a) supra.; (2011b) Land and Freedom: One Bahamas and a Tale of Two Cities. Paper Presented to the Bahamas Historical Association, 7th April, Nassau, Bahamas. Available online <http://www.academia.edu/12349576/Lans-and_Freedon-Onr_Bahamas_and_a_Tale_of_Two_Cities>; (2012) supra.; Remi Joseph Salisbury (2015): “Does Anyone Really Care What a Racist Says: Anti-Racism in Post-Racial Times” In the Sociological Review, Volume 67(1)  October. Available online <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0038026118807672?journalCode=sora>; Priyamvada Gopal (2016): “Redressing Anti-Imperial Amnesia” In Race and Class, Volume 57(4) January. Available online <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0306396815608127#>

[xviii] William McPherson (1999): The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. CM-4262-1. Available online <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277111/4262.pdf>

[xix] Kathy Burrell, Peter Hopkins and Arshad Isakjee et al. (2018): Brexit, Race and Migration. Available online.

[xx] A. Sivanandan (2016): “Forward” In J. Burnett, Racial Violence and the Brexit State. Institute of Race Relations, London

[xxi] R. Eddo-Lodge (2016): Forming Blackness Through a Screen” In N. Shukls (ed.) The good Immigrant, Unbound,  London

[xxii] C. Mullard (1973): Black Britain. George Allen and Unwin, London; Rick Bowler (2017): Whiteness, Britishness and the Racist Reality of Brexit. Cass Working paper No.2. CASS, Sunderland

[xxiii] A. Dummett and M. Dummett (1982): “The Role of Government in Britain’s Racial Crisis” In C. Husband (ed.) Race in Britain: Continuity and Change. Hutchinson, London; R. Miles and A. Phizaclkea (1984): White Man’s Country: Racism in British Politics. Pluto Press, London;  Rick Bowler (2017) supra.

[xxiv] Simon Woolley (2016): “Brexit and the Normalisation of Race Hatred” In the Operation Black Vote WebBlog. Available online < https://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/brexit-and-normalisation-race-hatred>

[xxv] Ibid.

[xxvi] Gurminder K. Bhambra (2017): “Locating Brexit in the Pragmatics of Race, Citizenship and Empire” In William outhwaite (ed.) Brexit: Sociological Responses. Anaheim Press, London

[xxvii] K. Paul (1997): Whitewashing Britain: Race and Citizenship in the Post-War Era. Cornell University, New York; Rick Bowler (2017) supra.

[xxviii] Rick Bowler (2017) supra.

[xxix] Ibid.

[xxx] Referenced in Foluke Ijejola Ipinyomi (2016): “Race, Heritage and Epistemic Violence: What Brexit if for Africas and British Africans”. In the University of Bristol Law School Blog, July 5. Available online https://legalresearch.blogs.bris.ac.uk/2016/07/race-heritage-and-epistemic-violence-what-brexit-is-for-africa-and-british-africans/

[xxxi] Ibid.

[xxxii] Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1988): “Can the Subaltern Speak” In Cary nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (eds.) Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Macmillan, London

[xxxiii] Foluke Ijejola Ipinyomi (2016) supra.

[xxxiv] Ibid.

[xxxv] Ibid.

[xxxvi] Ibid.

[xxxvii] Ibid.

[xxxviii] Thomas Sankara (1988): Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87. Trans. Samantha Anderson. Pathfinder, New York

[sandytree1]

Lett å være rebell i kjellerleiligheten din

A comment I wrote to Aebern L on Youtube for Karpe Diem’s single: Easy to (be) a rebel in your apartment flat. 

They're defending immigrants by using common phrases from the immigrant debate, and are calling out the politician Anders Anundsen from the FRP party [for being a coward] and wanting a more restrictive immigration policy. You can find an English translation of the song here: https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Karpe-4/Lett-%C3%A5-v%C3%A6re-rebell-i-kjellerleiligheten-din/translation/english. You can find the references explained on the song's Genius page. Just use google translate to figure out what's written. https://genius.com/Karpe-diem-lett-a-vre-rebell-i-kjellerleiligheten-din-lyrics.

Karpe Diem has said that "the goal was to collect sentences, phrases and words people [in Norway] uses in the dehumanization of other ethnicities, religions and cultures. The comment section [of many major news outlets] is the place where people has the most freedom after all, and there everything comes out [people don't limit what they say]. Things they've "heard", repeated in a place where they think they're alone."

Terms and words explained

Apekatter means monkeys and is used as a hateful expression towards ethnic minorities that move into communal blocks.

Abu Bakr was leader of ISIS since 2010. Him being in a cockpit is a reference to 9/11.

"Is this what my tax money goes towards?" is a typical question you can find on comment sections of Norwegian news outlet websites. Norway's high taxes has been the subject of many complaints. Those who are already critical about immigrants therefore react strongly on the thought that their money is going towards helping immigrants settle down in the country.

"Ankerbarn" means anchor-kids refers to refugees who takes advantage of the system. It's claimed that families sends lone underage kids in advance to Norway, since children have an easier time gaining asylum, and thus the remaining people can apply for family reunion later on.

"Mokkamenn" basically translates as Mocha men and was an unfortunate comment that a Norwegian artist made when he won an award for his song "Møkkamann" (or dirty man, think in the context of working men). The person handing him the prize was black, so he made a pun: "when I see you guys, the song suddenly gains a new name: Mocha man".

So "The asylum-kids came, so mocha men can win the lottery" refers to the fact that gaining residence permit in the Norwegian welfare state would be like winning the lottery for many, due to the safety and advantages of Norwegian citizenship.

"They claim to come from poverty, yet they could afford a boat" refers to refugees crossing the Mediterranean in overfilled boats, thus some "though commenters" believes they can't be as poor as they give the impression to be - since they could afford a luxury item: a boat.

"Dogs born in a stable aren't horses or farm animals" is another sentence taken from comment sections, which claims that second generation immigrants still aren't Norwegian even if they're born and grown in the country.

"You're all made from the same wool" is a quote taken from Mulla Krekar, a Iraqi kurd living in Norway. He's been listed on UN's terror list since 2006 and in 2012 he was convicted to five years of prison for terror- and death threats. What the phrase basically means is that they all [not sure if he's just referencing immigrants or the human race in general] have the same religion, am of the same race, and have the same attitudes as Krekar. They're all put in the same box, and threathens to be punished due to their ethnicity.

“knulla” is a very vulgar word for hardcore sex

“Mulla, mulla, mulla, mulla, mulla” probably refers to Mulla Krekar. Mulla is also Arabic for lord and is a umbrella term for [religious] jurists in Sjia-Islam and in Asian Sunni-Islam. 

"Baba" is father in Swahili and also means someone one considers to have authority over you.

"If you only knew what I would give to be like you" refers to the identity crisis that the artists (Karpe Diem) felt growing up as Norwegians with immigrant backgrounds. In an interview he has said that "when we were kids-kids I felt a bit of that. I hated that we for instance went to Grønland* to shop for groceries on the weekends. I thought it was so much nicer to shop our groceries where "everyone else" [all the other kids] shopped. There you could buy letter-shaped cookies and not three packs of noodles for $1. When you're a kid you don't want to stick out, but now after some time has passed you just become happy for it. I didn't understand that I stood out. There were a lot of people who called me "nigger" and "fucking nigger", and I thought "huh, why are you calling me that?"

Grønland is a neighbourhood in central Oslo where most of the inhabitants are immigrants. It's basically a downtown immigrant hub. Closeby Tøyen is also filled with immigrants, although the place is subject to gentrification nowadays.

"It's so easy to be a rebel in your basement-flat*" refers to the fact that it's easy to be "tough" and come with hateful expressions in comment sections on the internet when you sit safely at home in your own basement flat. It's cowardly to not dare say anything to people face-to-face, but rather hide behind a PC-screen and keyboard.

Basement-flat is what most people's first rent to live in when they move away from home. It's basically a very cheap living place in the basement of the landlord's house (usually a family lives upstairs). In this context it most likely refers to the fact that these commentors haven't really gotten that far in life themselves. Most likely they still live with their parents and spends their nights in the basement-flat of their parents. On the other hand, it could also hint to that you do have a pretty nice and/or large house that in many cases costs quite a bit.

Tshawe, Nico, and Vinz are famous Norwegian rappers with immigrant backgrounds.

"You're the one bringing my daughter to the movies?" is an ironic question that's asked when those with immigrant backgrounds brings someone fully Norwegian to the movies. They're paranoid that it'll lead to negative events. [Like rape or something]

Kygo is a famous Norwegian DJ and producer.

Hijab is a headdress that Muslim women uses for humility purposes, among other things.

"I'm not racist, but ..." right before a racist comment is a sly (but ironic) way of protecting oneself.

kinda-kinda-passport refers to passports you gain from living in Norway for a while, and isn't considered to be worth as much as one belonging to someone ethnically Norwegian.

NAVer is used about those who don’t work [on purpose], but rather receive welfare money from the state (tax money).

NAV is the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organization

"Who's watching the cops?" or guardians is basically asking: who will make sure that those that carries out the law, follows it themselves?

"Who cuts the hairdresser?" is an allusion to the Barber Paradox: who's responsible/liable for those who fail their own responsibilities?

"quasi" means kinda and is used in Norwegian as a synonym for "illegitimate"

Nikka is a Japanese whisky brand. Drinking this makes you appear as a "knower".

"smoking something that makes them Asian" refers to the fact that some people tend to squint under the influence of cannabis, and the fact that many Asians has epicanthal folds, a trait that makes their eyes appear narrower.

“ ’til someone says every government needs their [own] monkey" refers to several things. Monkey in Norwegian is "ape" and in this context they're refering to the labour party, AP (Arbeiderpartiet), which is the largest party in Norway today, and has been a part of several governments. And since AP has similar pronunciation as "ape" or monkey, which they in this context is referring to a coloured person. A monkey can also be used to refer to an idiot - a popular person that appears less serious than the rest of the politicians. In this context they're talking about Anders Anundsen.

Anundsen is a FRP-politician and was the Norwegian minister of justice from 2013-2016 and became the subject of a controversy surrounding the deportation of so-called "long-term asylum children", children of asylum seekers who have had their application rejected, only to continue living in Norway illegally for several years. He and FRP has always wanted a pretty restrictive immigration policy. They place a lot of emphasis on helping in the adjacent areas instead. There's many who agree with this idea of handling things, but others believes that's not feasible since the situation there is dire so we can't keep letting in so few people.

"Karpe has opened enough doors now, time to close some" refers to the fact that Karpe Diem is so well liked in Norway that they can afford to burn some bridges. Therefore they're willing to release a single that will create a lot of debate.

Arif and Kaveh are Norwegian rappers with immigrant backgrounds that have managed to make something big out of their lives. The parallel is drawn to the asylum kids who never gets a chance since they're not let in. 

Lord is used as a metaphor for ethnic Norwegians, while Little lord referring to immigrants which are in minority and thus "smaller". Little lord is also the title of a Norwegian novel written by Johan Borgen, which describes the protagonist's upbringing in a bourgeouis home during the beginning of the 20th century, and his quest for his own identity.

English translation of the lyrics

Monkeys in my [apartment] complex and Abu Bakr in my cockpit! (Is this what my taxes goes towards?) Your anchor babies came, so that moccha men can win the lottery (Is this what my taxes goes towards?) They said they came from poverty, but could afford to ride a boat here (Is this what my taxes goes towards?) Dogs born in stables aren't horses or farm animals (Is this what my taxes goes towards?) You're all [cut] from the same cloth (You’ll all be fucked/shagged) Mullah, mullah, mullah, mullah, mullah You're all the same (You’ll all be fucked/shagged) Mullah, mullah, mullah, mullah, mullah

If you only knew what I would do to be like you, be like you, baba, be like you If you only knew what I would do to be like you You coward And it's so easy to be a rebel in your basement apartment It's so easy to be a rebel in your basement apartment It's so easy to be a rebel in your basement apartment You coward

I don't give a shit if you're Tshawe or Vinz or Nico (Are you the one taking my daughter to the movies?) You're cool today perhaps, but she'll be marrying Kygo (Are you the one taking my daughter to the movies?) Is the hijab in the backseat; is she going to be a muslim now? (Are you the one taking my daughter to the movies?) I'm not a racist, but is that kinda kinda passport of yours supposed to mean something? (Are you the one taking my daughter to the movies?)

Picking fruits in our gardens, you'll never be Scandinavian NAVer, NAVer, NAVer, NAVer, NAVer Picking fruits in our gardens, you'll never be Scandinavian NAVer, NAVer, NAVer, NAVer, NAVer

If you only knew what I would do to be like you, be like you, baba, be like you If you only knew what I would do to be like you You coward And it's so easy to be a rebel in your basement apartment It's so easy to be a rebel in your basement apartment It's so easy to be a rebel in your basement apartment You coward

My boys go fuck, holy shit, holy fuck Who's watching the cops, who's cutting the hairdresser? Asking provocative questions; quasi-smart Drinking Nikka, smoking something that makes them Asian Until someone says that each government needs their monkey And everyone thinks it's a good pun Because it means two things, and that's kinda the requirement for something like that, yeah Anders, Anders, Anders Anundsen My black guys said some wise words "Karpe has opened enough doors now, time to close some" If Arif or Kaveh or the refugee children are let [or slips] in What the fuck will they do there, brother? Say that to Anders, Anders, Anders Anundsen

[randomgemsfromothers]

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Deconstructing Race Multicultural Education Beyond the Color-Bind Jabari Mahiri Published by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027 Copyright © 2017 by Teachers College, Columbia University Cover designer/cover photo/photographer/stock house credit lines ?????????? All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. For reprint permission and other subsidiary rights requests, please contact Teachers College Press, Rights Dept. Ethnography offers all of us the chance to step outside our narrow cultural backgrounds, to set aside our socially inherited ethnocentrism, if only for a brief period, and to apprehend the world from the viewpoint of other human beings. —James Spradley (1979, v) Kobié Jr. is caramel colored. He was 3 years old when this chapter was written. His family soon started calling him Santi, short for his middle name, Santiago. In the United States where he was born, he is seen as a black1 boy. But his identity is more complex than that. Santi’s father was born and grew up in Chicago and identifies as African American. He majored in French and minored in math at Morehouse College. Santi’s mother identifies as Latina and completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was born in Popayá, a town in southwestern Colombia. At 5 she immigrated to the United States with her mother, who identifies as white and who was also born in Colombia. Santi’s grandfather on his mother’s side is indigenous Colombian and has lived his whole life in Colombia. Santi’s mother and grandmother are fluent in Spanish and English, and he too is bilingual in these languages. 1Lowercase letters are used for color-coded designations of racial categories throughout the book (except for the Series Foreword). CHAPTER 1 Writing Wrongs 3 Hélio was 8 when this chapter was written. Like his first cousin Santi, he was born in the United States. His dad, like his dad’s brother, grew up in Chicago; he graduated from Morehouse with a double major in physics and Spanish. Hélio’s mother is a French citizen and defined in her country as Caucasian. Her mother is Polish and Italian and her father is German. She met Hélio’s father while they were both completing doctorate degrees at the University of California, Berkeley. Hélio is fluent in English and French, so his uncle can communicate with him in French and English, while his father can communicate with his cousin Santi in Spanish and English. Hélio has a light complexion. When with his mother in the United States, he is seen as white; when with his father, he is seen as biracial. But his identity is more complex than that. Hélio and Santi are not anomalies. Like every individual in the United States (and the world), they are physically, linguistically, geographically, historically, and personal- culturally situated in families; in communities and communities of practice; in social, affinity, and religious groups; and in educational and other institutions within society. Their identities are constituted by rich arrays and confluences of forces and factors stemming from how each is distinctively and fluidly situated. A core motive and focus for this book is “writing the wrongs” of hierarchy and hypocrisy perpetuated by how these children are socially constructed in U.S. society. The research and writing of this book occurred during the 2016 presidential campaign and election. Since the November 8 results, significant increases in hate crimes and harassment against Muslims, Latinos, Jews, African Americans, LGBTQ Americans, and other minority and vulnerable groups have been continually documented and reported. Trump’s deliberate denigration of these groups leading up to and subsequent to the 4 election reinvigorated and validated white supremacists’ views that reject the value of multiculturalism and instead promote an imagined white, Christian European heritage. Clearly, his rhetoric and selection of people into leadership positions in his administration have emboldened white identity politics and increased discord and division in our society. One of the many painful examples is the incident at JFK Airport in New York shortly after his inauguration, in which Robin Rhodes, a 57-year-old man from Worchester, Massachusetts, physically and verbally assaulted a female Delta Airlines employee who was wearing a hijab. He kicked her and ranted profanities about Islam and also said, “Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you” (Bever, 2013). Significantly, Trump’s election was predicated on the fact that 58% of people identified as white voted for him. Deconstructing race is particularly imperative in the corrosive post-election climate facilitated by his election, and the roles of multicultural education are all the more pivotal. Race is a socially constructed idea that humans can be divided into distinct groups based on inborn traits that differentiate them from members of other groups. This conception is core to practices of racism. There is no scientific justification for race. All humans are mixed! And, scientists have demonstrated that there is no physical existence of races. Yet, race is a social fact with a violent history and hierarchy that has resulted in differential and disturbing experiences of racism predicated on beliefs that races do exist. My argument for deconstructing race is grounded in insights from scholars who have guided my thinking, as well as extensive ethnographic interviews of people identified within the five most generally referenced racial categories in the United States—in essence, what I’ve learned from the literature joined with what I’ve learned from lives of others. 5 LEARNING FROM THE LIVES OF OTHERS What I’ve learned from the literature and scholarship on race as well as prospects for deconstructing it are taken up in Chapters 2 and 3 and threaded through the subsequent chapters. This literature and scholarship provided compelling examples of writing the wrongs of race by explicating myriad false premises and contradictions in racial ideologies and narratives past and present. Initially, this book was conceived exclusively as a discussion of scholarship on these issues. However, after conversations with Relene,2 who became the first of 20 interviewees, I decided to bring perspectives and stories from people’s lives into dialogue with literature and scholarship. I saw the book’s focus being substantively illuminated by my conscious attempt to step outside my own cultural background and, as Spradley suggested in the quote that begins this chapter, to “apprehend the world from the viewpoint of other human beings” (1979, p. v). Consequently, in-depth descriptions and stories of people’s actual lives were joined with selected literature and scholarship as ways of writing the wrongs of race. I was reminded of the critically acclaimed movie, The Lives of Others (Wiedermann, Berg, & von Donnersmarck, 2006), which won an Oscar for best foreign film. The story was set before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, when East Germany’s population was closely monitored by the state secret police, the Stasi. Only a few citizens were permitted to lead private lives, among them a renowned pro-Socialist playwright. Eventually, he too was subject to surveillance, and a Stasi policeman was ordered to secretly monitor the conversations in his apartment to discover any incriminating activities by the group of 2Pseudonyms for all interviewees have been selected to reflect real names in terms of cultural connections like ethnic, linguistic, geographic, or religious origins. 6 artists who frequently met there. However, what the policeman learned in listening in on their lives ended up changing his life and politics. Of course, I received permission to interview the adults who volunteered for this project, but as with the “secret sharer” in The Lives of Others, my personal views and understandings were shaped and changed by what I learned. Wacquant (2008) also argued for and demonstrated the significance of extending scholarship with ethnographic investigations. Spradley (1979), who provided a comprehensive framework for ethnographic interviewing, went so far as to say, “Perhaps the most important force behind the quiet ethnographic revolution is the widespread realization that cultural diversity is one of the great gifts bestowed on the human species” (p. v). Spradley (1979), Denzin and Lincoln (2003), Frank (2009), and Saldana (2009) oriented my approach to conducting the interviews and analyzing the transcripts and field note data. Coding across data sources was converted into larger descriptive categories and later merged into the major themes discussed in Chapter 3. Because I feel that not only academics, but all readers should understand the approaches used to generate and document claims being made about people’s lives, I discuss these methods as part of the Introduction to this book. Ultimately, I would like readers to respond as Joseph Wood, one of many pre-publication “ghost” readers, did. He put himself in the shoes of the interviewees and mused over inaccuracies of his own racial identity. Indeed, how do we all construct identity in contrast to how it is socially constructed for us? The qualitative work began when I interviewed Relene at Seoul International Airport in May of 2014. I completed the remaining 19 interviews, four adults identified in each of 7 the categories of European, African, Asian, and Hispanic American and American Indian/Alaskan Native, over the next 2 years. They agreed to be audiotaped, so in addition to their voices, I captured facial expressions, gestures, and body language as they spoke, often passionately and painfully, about these issues. I met Relene at the 2014 Korean Association of Multicultural Education Conference (KAME), in which I co-presented a paper with Grace Kim where I introduced the concept of “micro-cultures” as a way of re-thinking identity beyond what I called “the color-bind.” Kim provided illuminating examples from her research on participatory culture at a Korean website called Dramacrazy (Mahiri & Kim, 2016; Kim, 2016). As Relene and I discussed our research interests, I also learned that she had come to the United States with her family from the Caribbean Island of Dominica as an immigrant in late adolescence. This positioning had sharpened the focus of her “inner eyes”—an image from the “Prologue” of Invisible Man (Ellison, 1947) that I will discuss in Chapter 2. As we talked about the focus of this book project, I could see the significance of pre- interview conversations. I listened for information and ideas that, if she agreed to be interviewed, would inform my questions to help her deeply probe her experiences. For example, although she has dark brown skin, she talked about how her teenage experiences in Boston made her feel like she was “passing for black.” This was more than a year before Rachel Dolezal was outed by her parents on June 15, 2015 as a white woman passing for black. I will return to the controversy surrounding Ms. Dolezal in Chapter 5, but here I provide a glimpse of how Relene came to her own sense of “passing.” Of African- Caribbean heritage, she identifies as a black woman who became a naturalized U.S. 8 citizen. She noted, “U.S. society tends to identify me as an African American woman, meaning a U.S.-born black.” But her experiences in Boston not only revealed her marginalization from blacks born in the United States, they also reflected her being the victim of intense discrimination by them. Yet, she and other West Indian immigrants wanted to be accepted by the Boston black community. So she adopted cultural practices—behaviors and styles of dress, music, food, and language—that eventually allowed her to pass for black. Essentially, she performed overt cultural components of being black, in part, to avoid “blacklash.” Below the surface association with being black, however, Relene’s life is much more complex—as is everyone’s. Her truer self, her unique and dynamic positionality, practices, choices, and perspectives were not visible through the veil of race used to define her, whether by those who saw themselves as black or white. After interviewing Relene, I realized that gathering information and ideas in pre- interview conversations allowed me to initially have to ask only two questions of each interviewee: How do you feel U.S. society identifies you? And, How do you identify yourself? Because I was interested in how the interviewee’s identities and affinities were mediated by digital media and hip-hop culture, I closed each interview with two final questions: In what ways did you previously and do you currently participate in digital culture? And, In what ways, if any, did you previously and do you currently participate in hip-hop culture? Each interview involved following up on things interviewees revealed in response to these four questions in an open-ended, dialogical way. These four questions allowed me to explore if and how the interviewees’ identities and affinities that 9 were revealed through their positioning, practices, choices, and perspectives complicated or obviated assigned racial categories. Each formal interview lasted from 2 to 3 hours, and I also had follow-up conversations with all the interviewees to explore additional questions. I didn’t record or take notes during conversations prior to or subsequent to the formal interviews, but shortly afterwards, I wrote expansive descriptive and reflective fieldnotes to capture what I had learned. These notes became part of the data for analysis. Every interview was transcribed, read a number of times, and inductively coded to develop categories, as well as to identify any outlier considerations within and across racial, gender, sexual diversity, and generational designations. Like Relene, the other 19 interviewees bravely intimated how they constructed, negotiated, rejected, erased, or deliberately distinguished key aspects of their identities. They also discussed how they saw their identities being invisibilized, homogenized, or boxed in rigid categories. They used and explained terms like “pigmentocracy,” “blacxican,” “Mexica,” “racial indeterminacy,” “gender ambiguity,” “pretending to be white,” “clapback,” and “selective identities” that illuminated intricate aspects of their mercurial lives. Consequently, they revealed complexity, specificity, and fluidity of their personal-cultural identities and affinities that could not be contained within or explained by reductive conceptions of race. All 20 are U.S. citizens. One criteria was that each interviewee self-identify in one of the five ascribed racial categories. One person discussed in the Chapter 5 who has an African American and a German parent did not affirm an African American identity, but indicated that she is often seen that way. Within these categories, I selected two women 10 and two men with one of them being identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ). This held for all groups except American Indian/Alaskan Natives, in which no one identified as LGBTQ. However, interviews with two of the American Indians spoke incisively to considerations of gender and sexual orientation. Another criterion was that interviewees be between the ages of 21 and 45 years old, which was true for all except one subject who was 47 when interviewed. This age specification was to get perspectives of interviewees who were born and developed into adults since the rise of the digital age and the birth of hip-hop in the early 1970s. While honoring these selection criteria, I drew mainly on snowballing my personal, social, and professional relationships and networks to identify participants. Like the narrator in James McPherson’s short story “Elbow Room” (1986), I was hunting for good stories. This may be seen as a limitation, but I feel that the significance of the study is in what is revealed about its focus through the sustained, close exploration of the practices, choices, and perspectives of the interviewees. Though beginning in self-acknowledged racial categories, the questions and dialogues allowed the interviewees to reflect on how their identities have been shaped by personal and social experiences, histories, trajectories, choices, and views that don’t fit easily into assigned categories of race. KEY CONCEPTS We are all born into a social position and with physical features that contribute to our sense of who we are. But social positioning and physical features are not (or should not be) determinative of identity. Against the grain of social constructions, this book reveals how people’s identities are ultimately determined by a wide range of personal-cultural 11 practices, choices, and perspectives. The practices engaged in throughout our lives are tied to major and minor life choices as well as perspectives we develop about ourselves and others at the intersection of personal, social, material, and spiritual worlds. The lives of the interviewees provided evidence for how the intersections and interactions of these components reflected the actual identities of individuals, rather than the essentialized racial categories that Brodkin (1998) noted are “assigned” by white supremacy. “Micro-cultures” (with a hyphen) is a key concept that captures the numerous components of positioning, practices, choices, and perspectives that make up the unique identities of each individual. This idea builds upon, but is distinguished from, Banks’ (2013) concepts of “microcultures” (without a hyphen) and “multiple group memberships,” as discussed in Chapter 9. I describe micro-cultural identities and practices as being mediated by language, and, like language, as being both acquired and learned. But they are also constituted and mediated through digital texts and tools that dramatically increase the range of how they can be engaged or enacted. At any moment, the vertical axis of these virtually limitless combinations of components—like fingerprints—reflect and define the ultimate uniqueness of individuals. On multiple horizontal axes, alignments of components also reflect similarities of individuals to specific others in shared or connected experiences within histories and geographies— within time and space. Unlike fingerprints, the combinations of micro-cultural components are dynamic and constantly changing (Mahiri, 2015; Mahiri & Kim, 2016; Mahiri & Ilten-Gee, 2017). From this perspective each life might be seen as a river fed by many distinct tributaries flowing into the sea of humanity. 12 The core argument of this book is that the continually emerging, rapidly changing micro-cultural identities and practices of individuals cannot be contained in the static racial categories assigned by white supremacy. Although many scholars of multicultural education have complicated these categories to illustrate more nuanced understandings of individual and group differences within them, and, although individuals and groups have struggled to construct identities of themselves within these assigned categories, the lives and literature discussed in this book challenge the very use of these categories as viable ways to identify people. The scholarship reviewed and the people interviewed reveal the deceit of racial categories. As the multicultural paradigm continues to evolve, these categories themselves must be changed. A beginning step in this direction has already been taken in the 2010 census by backing away from identifying Hispanics as a race, as I discuss in Chapter 3. In Chapter 7, I build on the language used to identify Hispanics in the 2010 census to offer a more accurate and viable way of defining people without resorting to race as a classification. Teaching and learning that directly acknowledge and decisively build upon the micro-cultural identities and affinities of youth and adults will substantially contribute to deconstructing reductive, color-coded, racial categories and thus contribute to dismantling the hierarchies and binaries upon which white supremacy is based. Of course, this challenge must go beyond mere recognition of micro-cultures. Mills (1997), along with many other scholars, recognized that “racism [as manifested through white supremacy] is itself a political system, a particular power structure of formal and informal rule, socioeconomic privilege, and norms for the differential distribution of material wealth and opportunities, benefits and burdens, rights and duties” (p. 3). 13 Negating the effects of racism, power, and privilege wielded historically and contemporarily by groups that define themselves as white will take time and deliberate, strategic acts of deconstructing race. Some LGBTQ individuals and groups have demonstrated the viability of resisting and transforming restrictive understandings of sexual diversity, particularly over the past 50 years. It may take another 50 years of conscious work to transform understandings of human diversity before we can right the wrongs of race that white supremacy has specified and reinforced, both for its proponents and for those it oppresses and exploits. Facilitating this process in teaching and learning contexts within and beyond schools is a pivotal challenge of multicultural education. In conjunction with micro-cultures, “identity contingencies” (Steele, 2010) is another key concept used to address how social constructions of identity can be predicated on physical characteristics and used as the basis for stereotypes and resulting stereotype responses. Steele and many other researchers building on his work have indicated how identity contingencies like skin color, facial features, hair type, and body size are linked to how people are socially constructed and treated in society, as well as how they interact with the world. Stereotypes associated with identity contingencies can forcefully and problematically shape people’s identities and development. Identity contingencies and associated stereotypes underlie how individual identities are constituted and responded to in U.S. society, and they factor in as components of an individual’s micro-cultural positioning that must be understood. Digital media is also integral to micro-cultural identities. Two of Gee’s (2003) 36 Principles of learning with new media—the “Identity Principle” and “Affinity 14 Principle”—are additional concepts that clarify how individual identities move beyond racially defined categories. In defining the “Identity Principle,” Gee noted that Learning involves taking on and playing with identities in such a way that the learner has real choices and ample opportunity to mediate on the relationship between new identities and old ones. There is a tripartite play of identities as learners relate, and reflect on, their multiple real-world identities, their virtual identities, and a projective identity. (2003, p. 208) Individual identities are also linked to affinities with other individuals and groups in both real and virtual spaces. Regarding the “Affinity Principle,” Gee (2003) noted that membership and participation in affinity groups or affinity spaces (the virtual sites of interaction) are defined primarily by shared endeavors, goals, and practices, rather than shared race, gender, nation, ethnicity, or culture (p. 212). An additional concept from Gee (2013, 2015) that is important regarding micro- cultures is his delineation of the nature of activity-based identities. This concept focuses on the freely chosen practices of an individual that contribute to grounding a sense of self. Gee contrasted activity-based identities to relational identities. Relational identities are closely related to identities that are socially constructed and also connect to Steele’s notion of identity contingencies. Gee noted that relational identities most often work to efface rather that reflect diversity, but when accepted and owned they can be like activity-based identities. Activity-based and relational identities also were 2 of the 13 categories that surfaced in the interview data. These practices can reflect resident and emerging forms of social organization or what Gee (1991) earlier referred to as discourse communities. He described how discourse communities come with “identity kits” that include how to act, 15 talk, and take on specific roles that others in the community recognize. Relene essentially was performing components of the identity kit needed to get recognized as black in Boston. Finally, Crenshaw’s (1989) concept of intersectionality (which examines how various social, cultural, and biological categories of identity intersect) was another useful concept for seeing the complexity of numerous elements of identity that are simultaneously yet differentially impacted within oppressive systems. Again, all of these intersecting and interacting components are multiplied through the use of digital texts and tools. CHAPTER OVERVIEWS Chapters 2 and 3 discuss literature and scholarship that explicate crucial prospects and imperatives of deconstructing race. Chapter 2 is not a traditional literature review. It discusses works primarily by literary writers who I feel were inherently “Deconstructing Race.” The idea was to begin discussion of the book’s focus with writers who are central to American literature and, therefore, generally familiar to readers throughout the United States and the world. Although authors in this group have written many novels, Ellison’s Invisible Man (1947) is the only novel discussed. Morrison’s Playing in the Dark (1992) is a critique of how literature by white authors works to make race and difference invisible. Baldwin’s A Rap on Race (1971, with Margaret Mead) powerfully captures racial dynamics from a half century ago and reminds us of how little things have changed. Du Bois’ Souls of Black Folk (1903) is used to frame this dialogue on race among these four American writers. The chapter begins with ideas from Derrida (1981/1972) on deconstruction and also discusses multicultural education with respect race. It concludes 16 with a discussion of why deconstructing race is imperative, particularly in light of the contemporary re-emergence of white identity politics. Chapter 3 is a traditional review of scholarship. After discussing prospects and imperatives of “Deconstructing Race” in Chapter 2, this chapter begins with Du Bois’ (1903) characterization that the problems of the 20th century is the problem of the color line. It then discusses scholarship that addresses how the problem of the 21st century is “The Color-Bind.” Discussions of the color-bind in this chapter are not color-blind. Rather than not seeing or denying the reality of difference, the color-bind reflects on- going attempts to contain people in fabricated racial categories, shackling minds and imaginations in divisions of difference. Scholarship in this chapter illuminates how and why this has occurred historically and contemporarily in sections on “Prisons of Identity” and “Prisms of Identity.” It reveals how these constraints on human identity are sustained for each racial group through societal forces and institutions like the U.S. census. This chapter argues that breaking out of the color-bind frees us to better appreciate and embrace our differences, but also to see vital commonalities in our human experiences beyond the blinders of race. The next five chapters present stories and perspectives of the diverse group of interviewees whose lives, like all our lives in the United States, are forcibly fixed primarily within five general categories of race. As the final section of Chapter 2 connects the issues of this book to the current controversy of re-emerging white identity politics, the chapter by chapter discussions and stories of the interviewees are also connected to current controversies. All but one of the titles of these chapters came from statements made by individual interviewees. These titles signal a conceptual and 17 linguistic shift towards negating the color-codes that define racial categories: “Pretending to be White,” “Passing for Black,” “No Body’s Yellow,” “The Brown Box,” and “Red Rum.” Chapter 4, “Pretending to be White,” has a slightly different purpose and structure from the other four chapters on the interviewees. It begins by defining and discussing the 13 key categories that surfaced in the coding of data and how they connected under three major themes that variously distinguished and united the stories of all 20 interviewees. This chapter is used to demonstrate how each of the 13 categories reflected in the three major themes of “hyper-diversity,” “stereotyping,” and “identity constructions” are specifically evidenced in the lives of all four interviewees discussed. The same level of evidence supports the discussions of the other 16 interviewees, but with this group, the categories from the data are embedded in the telling of their stories. Chapter 5, which presents the stories of four African Americans, is framed with a discussion of the Rachel Dolezal controversy, while Chapter 6, which presents the stories of four Asian Americans, begins with the controversy surrounding the response to the 2017 Oscars by Korean rapper Johnathan Park, who talked about knocking down racial walls. Chapter 7, which presents the stories of four Hispanic Americans, begins with a discussion of how identity is framed for Hispanics as connected to the most recent U.S. census. I suggest that this framing offers a way forward in thinking about the issue of identity for all people in the United States. Chapter 8, on Native Americans, is framed by the crisis at Standing Rock, and the stories of those four interviewees reflect ways of thinking about our humanity that also suggests a way forward. 18 Chapter 9 brings findings from the five chapters on interviewees together within a framework of “Micro-cultures” that builds upon and is distinguished from Banks’ (2013) concept of “microcultures” without a hyphen. The concept of micro-cultures with the hyphen is fully explicated as a framework for understanding the significance of the findings from the interview data of the previous chapters. The final chapter synthesizes findings and discussions from the earlier chapters and suggests “Challenges of Multicultural Education” in moving beyond the color-bind. It portrays “Multicultural Education 2.0” through discussion and examples of teaching and learning in schools that work to more fully realize the prospects of our country’s diversity and humanity. 19